Wolf Pack

The good news is that Joe Pickett has his job back, after his last adventure in The Disappeared. The bad news is that he's come to learn that a drone is killing wildlife--and the drone belongs to a mysterious and wealthy man whose son is dating Joe's own daughter, Lucy. When Joe tries to lay down the rules for the drone operator, he's asked by the FBI and the DOJ to stand down, which only makes him more suspicious. Meanwhile, bodies are piling up in and around Joe's district in shocking numbers. He begins to fear that a pack of four vicious killers working on behalf of the Sinaloa cartel known as the Wolf Pack has arrived. Their target seems to be the mystery man and everyone--including Joe, Nate, and others--who is associated with him. Teaming up with a female game warden (based on a real person, one of the few female game wardens at work in Wyoming today) to confront these assassins, Joe finds himself in the most violent and dangerous predicament he's ever faced.-- Publisher's description.

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Game wardens Katelyn Hamm & Joe Pike find themselves facing off with the FBI over a drone owner terrifying deer and elk herds. What they don't know is a cartel hit squad, the Wolf Pack, is after the whistle blower and anyone the Wolf Pack cross paths with tend to be wiped out too.
Constant action made this a page turner I couldn't put down.

I have read every one of Mr. Box's books and have enjoyed them all he is an excellent writer and story teller. However his last book "Wolf Pack" was very much out of his normal type. This book was from beginning to end filled with violence and bloodshedI was very disappointed in it. I will continue to read his books but hope he does return to his former style.

I always like CJ Box's series with Joe Pickett, but this one felt a bit rushed, formulaic and not quite up to the level of other books in the series. I hope this isn't the one that jumped the shark. Hopefully the series will get back to more character development. With a long series it can be hard to jump into but I really didn't want the first 1/4 of the book to be a general recap of the earlier books in the series.

I'm always curious to see what topical issues make it into the plot. Here we have witness protection, Mexican cartels, fentanyl, drones harassing animals in the wilderness, and the thorny issue of reintroducing wolves. That is a lot but maybe focusing on just a few would have been better...or expounding more on some of the topics.

I would really like to see a stand alone series with Nate Romanowski. It would be a departure, but would allow for something different. For that matter, aside from mentioning some people in the family we don't know what they are really doing now. Too bad, they were colorful and this could use a little more color and less carnage.

Whew! What a book!! This novel's murderous wolf pack is two-legged kind. Joe finds himself in the most violent and dangerous predicament he’s ever faced. I don't want to write anything that would give the plot of this book away so I'll leave it at that.

I have to say that reading one of Box’s new books and following Joe, Marybeth, and Nate Romanowski, is like catching up with old friends one hasn't seen in a while.

I have been reading Joe Pickett novels since 2001. This one, the latest, started out like pieces of a jig saw puzzle that I wouldn't make much sense of because there's no up front picture to guide my reading. Then I got the great idea to shut off the television and concentrate on what was written, like following the trail through the woods. I love how C.J. Box is able to take the kaleidoscope of so many people and bring into focus a pretty good plot. Box is only 60 years old and may still have another 10 Pickett novels before stopping. The fans of Pickett are also fascinated with Nate Romanowski.

4 stars. IC. J. Box is one of my favourite authors and I love his Joe Pickett series. This book was #19 in the series and was a good read. Wyoming Game Warden Joe has his job back and he and his family have moved into a new home. A drone is harassing and killing wildlife and Joe discovers that the drone belongs to a mysterious man who appears to be above the law. This man's son is dating Joe's daughter, which makes it problematic. Joe teams up with another Game Warden, Katelyn Hamm, to try to enforce the law on this man, but soon the FBI is involved and their team appears willing to do whatever they need to do to stop Katelyn and Joe. And then people start dying in their territory and a team of Sinaloan assassins nicknamed The Wolf Pack appears to be responsible. Joe calls on Nate and they soon find themselves in the gunsights of the cartel hit team. A very good read.

C.J. Box knows his characters and their environment, and shows it in this novel. Almost everyone is there at one point or another from, from Joe's ex mother-in-law, to FBI's Coon. And the environment is there, too, from the muddy to the snow, and even the animals, from elk, deer, and moose, to the apex animal- the Wolf (in both human and animal form). This story has a much higher body count than normal, but that happens when you deal with the cartels. When the bullets fly, Joe Pike is always glad to have his friend Nate with him.